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{{Short description|Comics character}}
{{Infobox comics character<!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics-->
|image = [[Image:Ironmunrodcu0.jpg|225px]]
|caption = Arn Munro, artist Brian Murray.
|character_name = Iron Munro
|real_name = Arnold Raymond "Iron" Munro
|species = [[Metahuman]]
|publisher = [[DC Comics]]
|debut = ''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #1 (June 1987)
|creators = [[Roy Thomas]] (writer)<br>[[Dann Thomas]] (co-plotter)<br>[[Michael Bair]] (artist)<br>Brian Murray (artist)
|alliances = [[Young All-Stars]]<br>[[All-Star Squadron]]<br>[[Freedom Fighters (comics)|Freedom Fighters]]<br>[[Supermen of America]]
|aliases = Arn Munro
|supports =
|powers = Super strength and speed<br>Invulnerability<br>Able to make great leaps<br>Longevity<br>Enhanced reflexes
}}
'''Iron Munro''' ('''Arn Munro''') is a [[superhero]] character appearing in [[American comic book]]s published by [[DC Comics]]. [[Roy Thomas]] created the character in 1987 for ''[[Young All-Stars]]''. He largely served to replace [[Superman]] in stories set during [[World War II]] after the ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'' storyline eliminated continuities in which Superman was active in this period.

After Roy Thomas decided to cancel his World War II-set comic ''[[All-Star Squadron]]'' in the wake of ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'',because of all the changes done that eliminated the original multiverse and replaced it with a single earth and universe,he created a follow-up series with a new superhero team, ''Young All-Stars''. Iron Munro was one of several new characters Thomas created as analogues for popular superheroes written out of the continuity; he stood in for Superman, with comparable powers and appearance. He was inspired by two 1930s [[pulp magazine|pulp fiction]] characters who in turn prefigured Superman: [[John W. Campbell]]'s science fiction hero [[Aarn Munro]], who appeared in comics as "Iron Munro", and [[Hugo Danner]], the protagonist of [[Philip Wylie]]'s 1930 novel ''[[Gladiator (novel)|Gladiator]]'', who had powers similar to Superman's and is sometimes seen as an inspiration.

''Young All-Stars'' did not achieve the popularity of ''All-Star Squadron'', which had featured better known characters from the [[Golden Age of Comic Books]]. The series was cancelled in 1989 due to low sales,since the replacement series to ''All Star Squadron'' moved to the direct sales only market(comic book stores) when it began,thereby affecting overall sales of the new book. Iron Munro continued to make occasional appearances in DC Comics.

==Development==
From 1981 to 1987, [[Roy Thomas]] wrote [[DC Comics]]' popular series ''[[All-Star Squadron]]'', set on [[Earth-Two]], a parallel universe based on the company's characters of the 1940s [[Golden Age of Comic Books]]. ''All-Star Squadron'' depicts a team of Earth-Two versions of characters like [[Superman (Earth-Two)|Superman]], [[Batman (Earth-Two)|Batman]], and [[Wonder Woman (Earth-Two)|Wonder Woman]] fighting in World War II. In 1985, DC launched the ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'' crossover storyline, which ultimately eliminated the company's [[Multiverse (DC Comics)|Multiverse]] of parallel worlds in favor of a new unified continuity. This removed Superman and others from the World War II setting, and DC cancelled ''All-Star Squadron'' in 1987.<ref name=Kunka>{{cite encyclopedia |last= Kunka |first= Andrew J. |editor-last= Booker |editor-first= M. Keith |encyclopedia= Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas |title= Roy Thomas |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hnuQBQAAQBAJ&q=Thomas&pg=PA1279 |access-date= February 25, 2016 |year= 2014|publisher= ABC-CLIO |isbn= 978-0313397516 |pages= 1278–1279}}</ref>

DC charged Thomas with writing a follow-up series with new characters. He created ''[[Young All-Stars]]'', featuring a new team of World War II-era superheroes. His concept was that the "displaced energy" of the removed superheroes generated analogs to replace them; as such, most of the new cast stood in for the heroes written out of the continuities. Iron Munro replaced Superman with similar powers and appearance; Flying Fox, [[Fury (DC Comics)|Fury]], and [[Neptune Perkins]] replaced Batman, Wonder Woman, and [[Aquaman]] respectively.<ref name=Kunka/><ref name=AllStar>{{cite book |last= Thomas |first= Roy |date= 2004|title= The All-Star Companion |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kxQEhkcO0fYC&q=Munro |publisher= TwoMorrows Publishing |page= 200 |isbn=1893905055}}</ref>

Thomas' Iron Munro was inspired by two characters from 1930s [[pulp magazine|pulp fiction]]. His name comes from Aarn Munro, the hero of [[John W. Campbell]]'s 1934 science fiction novel ''[[The Mightiest Machine]]'' and some subsequent works. Campbell's character had incredible strength and agility from growing up on a high-gravity planet, the same explanation for Superman's powers in early stories. Notably, this is an inversion of [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' earlier character [[John Carter of Mars|John Carter]], an earthling whose strength increased on the smaller planet of Mars.<ref>{{cite book |last= Coogan |first= Peter |date= 2006 |title= Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre |publisher= MonkeyBrain Books|page= 144 |isbn=1-932265-18-X}}</ref> Aarn Munro appeared in ''[[Shadow Comics]]'' as "Iron Munro" in the 1940s.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.comicmix.com/2015/01/21/it-was-75-years-ago-the-shadow-hit-the-comic-racks/ |title= It was 75 Years Ago The Shadow hit the Comic Racks |last1= Tollin |first1= Anthony |date= January 21, 2015 |website= www.comicmix.com |publisher= [[ComicMix]] |access-date= February 29, 2016}}</ref> Additionally, Iron Munro is based on [[Hugo Danner]], the protagonist of [[Philip Wylie]]'s 1930 novel ''[[Gladiator (novel)|Gladiator]]''. Often viewed as a precursor to and possible inspiration for Superman, Hugo Danner likewise had otherworldly strength, speed, and impervious skin.<ref>{{cite book |last= Coogan |first= Peter |date= 2006 |title= Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre |publisher= MonkeyBrain Books|pages= 136–137; 180–181 |isbn=1-932265-18-X}}</ref> In a nod to Superman's debt to ''Gladiator'', Thomas made Iron Munro the son of Hugo Danner.<ref>{{cite book |last= Thomas |first= Roy |date= 2011|title= Alter Ego: Centennial |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Y_4Uhx_baPQC&q=%22Iron+Munro%22+%22Roy+Thomas%22&pg=PA39 |publisher= TwoMorrows Publishing |page= 39 |isbn=978-1605490311}}</ref>

==Publication history==
Loosely following Philip Wylie's novel ''Gladiator'', the comics establish that in 1894, scientist Abednego Danner injected his pregnant wife with an experimental serum. Their son Hugo was born with super-human strength, speed, and nigh-invulnerability. Hugo's powers led him through a number of adventures, but set him apart from mortal humans, bringing him grief. Eventually, Hugo staged his own death in the Yucatán Peninsula and went into hiding. He briefly returned to Colorado and had a one-night stand with his high school sweetheart, Anna Blake, who became pregnant. When Hugo disappeared for good, Blake married a young businessman named John Munro, who never realized the child she bore was not his own. Their son, Arnold, began exhibiting superhuman powers of strength and invulnerability at age ten. Remembering Hugo's troubles, Anna made her son promise to keep his abilities a secret until he turned eighteen.<ref>''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #11, 29</ref>

As a baseball player at his high school in Indian Creek, Colorado, Munro earned the nickname "Iron". He was a senior there when, in April 1942, he saved the superheroes [[TNT (comics)|TNT]] and [[Dan the Dyna-Mite]] from a burning car crash. TNT died but he managed to bring Dyna-Mite to a nearby hospital. Subsequently, Munro and other new "Young All-Stars" aided the [[All-Star Squadron]] in defeating [[Axis Amerika]]. [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Roosevelt]] asked Munro and the others to join the Squadron, about which Munro was reluctant, but he accompanied them on a cross-country [[War bond|War Bond]] promotion.<ref>''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #1-3</ref>

Soon thereafter, Arn received a mysterious diary written by Hugo Danner, his father.<ref>''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #9</ref> He learned about his father's troubled life as one of the 20th century's first metahumans.<ref>''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #10</ref> This led the young hero on a quest to learn of his father's fate. After having read his father's diary, Arn turned to the government's secret Project M, demanding to know the location of the "[[The War that Time Forgot|Dinosaur Island]]" mentioned in his father's diary. There he met Georgia Challenger, who led him instead to Maple White Land in South America. Surprisingly they found Arn's father, Hugo Danner, who had spawned a new band of "offspring", the Sons of Dawn.<ref>''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #28</ref> Danner used his father's formula to bestow powers on these Sons of Dawn and mentioned that the creators of the villain Übermensch had also stolen that formula.<ref>''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #29</ref>

Arn was forced to oppose his father when Danner ordered the Sons of Dawn to attack a Brazilian city.<ref>''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #30</ref> The combined might of the All-Star Squadron defeated the Sons of Dawn and Danner was killed.<ref name="Young All-Stars #31">''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #31</ref>

===Legacy===
During the war, Iron Munro also met his future wife, the Squadron member known as [[Phantom Lady]], Sandra Knight. Before the two of them were married, Sandra conceived a child (which she never revealed to him). She confided only in the [[Atom (Al Pratt)|Atom, Al Pratt]], who helped her give the child up for adoption. The hospital mistakenly listed Al as the father on the child's birth certificate. The child was named Walter Pratt and later became the father of [[Manhunter (Kate Spencer)|Kate Spencer]] (the current vigilante [[Manhunter (comics)|Manhunter]]).<ref>''Manhunter'' (vol. 3) #23 (June 2006)</ref>

After the war, both Arn and Sandra started working for the U.S. Government as members of the [[Office of Strategic Services|O.S.S.]] offshoot called ''Argent''. Arn took the code name "Gladiator One". The couple eventually married and on numerous missions came up against his WWII Nazi nemesis, [[Baron Blitzkrieg]] (calling himself simply ''The Baron'' and working for the Soviets). When the couple bore a second child, it was kidnapped by the Baron when Sandra was on a mission in Communist Poland. The child was (and still is) assumed killed at the time.<ref name=d6>''Damage'' #6</ref>

The couple gradually grew apart and sometime in the 1960s, Phantom Lady disappeared while on a covert mission for Argent. Though Munro later discovered she was alive, the two were never reunited.<ref>''[[Young All-Stars]]'' #11</ref>

Munro settled in Florida with his friend, Roy Lincoln (the [[Human Bomb]]). There he eventually met the young hero Grant Emerson ([[Damage (DC Comics)|Damage]]). Munro helped Emerson search for the identity of his biological parents. For a time, it appeared that Grant might be Arn and Sandra's lost child. Eventually they learned that Damage was actually the son of the Atom, Al Pratt, and his wife.<ref name=d6/>

Iron Munro continues to serve as an adventurer and apparently benefits from extended youth. During the massive war between [[Imperiex]] and [[Brainiac (character)|Brainiac 13]], the [[Justice Society of America|Justice Society's]] [[Sandy Hawkins|Sand]] recruited an army of All-Stars, which Arn joined.<ref>''JSA: [[Our Worlds at War]]''</ref> Afterwards, he joined the Human Bomb and Damage in the [[Freedom Fighters (comics)|Freedom Fighters]]. This group was doomed and Arn lost his good friend Roy when several of the F.F. were slaughtered by the Society.<ref>''[[Infinite Crisis]]'' #1</ref>

Recently, Sandra Knight also learned the fate of the child she gave up for adoption, Walter Pratt. Pratt became a homicidal maniac. His daughter [[Manhunter (Kate Spencer)|Katherine Spencer]] has now become Los Angeles' Manhunter. Pratt died when he was cut in half midstream in teleportation.<ref>''Manhunter'' (vol. 3) #19 (April 2006)</ref> Sandra met Kate Spencer,<ref>''Manhunter'' (vol. 3) #23</ref> and months later brought Arn to Kate for an introduction to her and Ramsey, his great grandson.<ref name="Young All-Stars #31"/>

Iron Munro became part of a network called [[Supermen of America]] after Superman learned that he cannot be everywhere at once. Along with other heroes, like [[Steel (comics)|Steel]], Super-Chief, Supergirl and Superboy, he has a signal watch that can be used for summons in emergencies. Iron Munro also works closely with the rehabilitated super-being [[Livewire (DC Comics)|Livewire]] and [[S.T.A.R. Labs]] employee Serling Roquette. Livewire also is accepted into the team.<ref>''Superman'' #714 (October 2011)</ref>

==Powers==
Munro is endowed with superhuman strength and speed, is invulnerable to the point where small firearms will only bruise him, can leap almost an eighth of a mile, has enhanced reflexes, and ages at a slower rate than an ordinary human, hence why despite being in his nineties, he still looks to be in his thirties.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dcuguide.com/w/Iron_Munro_(Arn_Munro)|title=Iron Munro (Arn Munro)|website=DCU Guide}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=ironmunro DCU Guide: Iron Munro] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203164036/http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=ironmunro |date=2007-02-03 }}

{{All-Star Squadron}}

[[Category:Golden Age superheroes]]
[[Category:DC Comics superheroes]]
[[Category:DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds]]
[[Category:DC Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability]]
[[Category:DC Comics characters with superhuman strength]]
[[Category:DC Comics metahumans]]
[[Category:Characters created by Roy Thomas]]
[[Category:Comics characters introduced in 1987]]